Sunday, November 27, 2016

Texas Politicians Are Failing To Protect "At Risk" Children

The agency created to protect children in the state of Texas, Child Protective Services, is failing in its mission. That has recently become obvious, and the scandal is being reported by media all over the state.

Why? The graphic to the left (from the Dallas Morning News) is telling. Texas has been trying to do the job on the cheap -- funding the effort at less than half of the per capita funding is for the nation as a whole. Child Protective Services does not receive adequate funding to do the job right.

There aren't enough caseworkers (and foster homes) to protect all of the children that are in need -- and those that the agency has are underpaid for the difficult job they are tasked to do (causing a huge turnover in the agency).

State government (controlled by Republicans) is trying to blame leadership at the state agency. But they should be blaming themselves. Even the best leaders cannot do the job without adequate funding, which they have been denied.

In the last couple of decades, state politicians have been concerned with only one thing -- cutting taxes for the rich. This has been done by cutting the budgets of all state agencies, including Child Protective Services (which was already underfunded).

The legislature (still controlled by Republicans) will meet again in January, and they have a decision to make. Is cutting taxes more for the rich more important than protecting the "at risk" children of Texas? Some politicians will probably try to tell us they can do both. That is a lie.

It's time for the politicians to do their primary job -- protecting the citizens of the state, especially the children. Anything less is unthinkable.

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How can you frighten a man whose hunger is not only in his own cramped stomach but in the wretched bellies of his children? You can't scare him - he has known a fear beyond every other.
-John Steinbeck

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What you need is sustained outrage...there's far too much unthinking respect given to authority.-Molly Ivins

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Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing bad things, but for good people to do bad things, it takes religion.
-Steven Weinberg